3 Common Errors in YouTube Live

And How to Troubleshoot!

About this presentation

It’s been an amazing year and a half live streaming on YouTube. I read that gaining traction with a regular scheduled live show takes about 12-16 months and I have to say that has been true for us here at PTZOptics. YouTube has done an amazing job improving their live streaming platform over the best 18 months and along the way we have been 98% satisfied. The platform satisfies 95% of wants, needs and desires of the live stream community in my honest opinion and my hat is off to the YouTube Live team for implementing 4K (still in BETA) before the end of 2016.

The Live Streaming Landscape

As YouTube and Facebook continue to add features, they satisfy the bulk of demand for live streaming in market. Each feature added reduces the need for paid CDNs. Paid CDN’s continue to grow in popularity as the entire market grows and demands advanced features such as: Geo-blocking, quality of service and protected access.

Live Streaming Market Adoption?

The early adopters stage is behind us as we enter the early majority. Facebook and YouTube have put live streaming into the hands of millions with mobile applications and integration with world’s largest social media networks...

BEFORE WE START!I just want to say that I LOVE YouTube Live! This is an amazing platform and my goal is to help increase awareness and speed up the process of improving the platform...

Troubleshooting GuideThe early adopters stage is behind us as we enter the early majority. Facebook and YouTube have put live streaming into the hands of millions with mobile applications and integration with world’s largest social media networks...

Let’s watch an overview video

Common Error #1 - The Stream Key Error AKA - FFMPEG ERRORThis error seems to be fairly consistent with pre-scheduled live streams after 3-4 weeks. Basically, you set up a live stream for one month in advance… It comes time to live stream the show and your stream key won’t work.

Don’t blame your encoding software! This is a YouTube Error!

How to troubleshoot FFMPEG / Stream Key Error?

Sadly, the only way to troubleshoot is to delete this event and start a new event. I always suggest making sure your live stream connection is working before promoting the URL of your event. If you have already promoted a URL which you cannot stream to… you will have to link to the new page in the description of that video...

Common Error #2 - Editing Recorded Video over 1 hour in length

This is a known issue on YouTube that effects live streamers significantly. Most live shows are at least 20-30 minutes and if you start your live stream with a pre-show the total recorded video is usually over one hour. Until this week, I have been starting my live show 30 minutes early and then conducting my 20 minute live show with a 20 minute Q&A. The total recorded time on YouTube ends up being roughly one hour and 10 minutes. Once the recording has posted I simply using the “enhancements” tool to “trim” off the pre-show from the recorded video.

Enhancements does not show up if video is more than 1 hour!

Video less than 1 hour in length Video more than 1 hour in length

Common Issue #3 - Copyright Claims - Guilty until Proven Innocent

For this one I have to say that YouTube is probably just doing the right thing here but I thought it was “Innocent until proven guilty” right? If your live show includes anything with a copyright (mainly music) you will immediately be sent a copyright strike via email and your video will start to be monetized by that copyright holder. I am very careful about the music I choose and always use creative commons music or purchase the right to use that music.

YouTube Live - Copyright Claims - Guilty until Proven Innocent

So, when this happen you have to “file a dispute”. It’s usually taken care of fairly quickly but it’s an annoying process to go through over and over again for the same piece of music. So naturally, I have been avoiding music that creates copyright strikes on my content (even if I own the rights to use it) and try my best to promote creative commons content with the proper credit to the musicians.

How to troubleshoot a copyright claim?

Be careful what music you use and make sure you own the content you are using in your live stream. Many royalty-free music licenses allow you to use the music only once… Other royalty-free music licenses allow unlimited use…

If you plan to monetize your content and maintain control over your videos you will want to play close attention to music you choose. The best idea would be to have an original piece of music made specifically for you. The issue with Creative Commons music is that the author could decide to have that material monetized in the future. YouTube would then claim a copyright strike on your content that was once completely legally using the music included in your live stream…

Improvement Suggestion #1 - Low Latency Mode Skips Video live & on the recording

OK, so here is a place where YouTube could make a really nice improvement. When you live steam on YouTube you have two options for buffering: 1. “Optimize for interaction” (Low Latency Mode) 2. “Optimize for less viewer buffering”

Low Latency Hybrid Mode would be awesome!

If you choose low latency mode, your audience will be as close to real time as possible but YouTube will actually skip parts of the video in order to catch the video up to real time. Some people use this feature because they want to real-time interactions with the audience via the chat. Personally, I would rather deal with the latency of roughly 30-60 seconds and using the optimize for buffering feature.

Improvement Suggestion #2 - Multiple Camera Mode

Let me start by saying this is one of the coolest unknown feature in YouTube Live. They have made it extremely easy to send multiple live streams to a single event allowing end users to select which “camera” they want to view at any time.

Improvement Suggestion #2 - Multiple Camera Mode

The improvement I would suggest involves error handling when one of the planned camera is not active. Honestly, YouTube does a good job notifying the broadcaster how to remedy the problem by deleted any cameras that are not streaming… But in the future it would be AMAZING if they could allow the event to start with or without a given camera. (more explained in the guide)